360 Review Processes: Making The Rightful Call

I was working in the study earlier today consulting the archives on 360 review processes and I penned this piece. Additional training for reviewees on how to choose their reviewers more effectively is recommended which requires resources. If you don’t want to organize a full training, you can create a short guide for reviewees. Also, the ease of use of the interface of 360-degree feedback software may reduce the likelihood of errors in the selection of reviewers. Too often organizations approach the 360 degree feedbackprocess assuming that using information from more sources will compensate for intentional and unintentional respondent distortion. It does not. When collected incorrectly, information from multiple sources increases rather than reduces error. Failure to account for unintentional and intentional rating errors destroys the credibility of assessment results. When giving 360 degree feedback, it’s important to clearly explain why a factor is hurting the subject's performance. Referring to specific situations will encourage employees to recall their past behavior and think about what actions they could take to change their performance. If you are one of the recipients in a 360 review, you need to accept the feedback for what it is. Most of 360-degree feedback will be anonymous, unless a giver chooses to reveal their identity. Hence, the temptation to guess who thinks highly of you, and also the opposite. However, you have to overcome this temptation. Your focus should be on what is being said, not who said it. One of the vital behaviors in a relationship is reciprocity – a mutually beneficial exchange. Performance feedback is something that is often one-sided (as in a supervisor/direct report relationship) or altogether missing (peers don’t feel it is their place to say anything). Some organizations have a relatively large number of senior organization members who occupy space and use organization resources but have long since ceased to be productive. These coasters also are known as deadwood, in-place retired, and window watchers. At a large service company they are called empty suits and at a manufacturing company, wasted shoes. By whatever name, they try to block the use of any credible performance feedback systems because their nonperformance will be exposed. 

360-degree feedback directed at leaders and managers reflects well on management as one that cares about the opinions and satisfaction of its employees. It fosters an open and trustworthy work environment for everyone working together, committed to complete honesty and helping each other gain a better understanding of their performance and actions. Coworkers who have sufficient work-related contact with the employee are excellent sources of feedback in a 360 appraisal. As a group, their feedback tends to be similar to team members' feedback, with slightly less interrater agreement and less distinction across criteria. Organizations have most commonly utilized 360-degree feedback for developmental purposes, providing it to employees to assist them in developing work skills and behaviors. However, organizations are increasingly using 360-degree feedback in performance evaluations and employment decisions (e.g., pay; promotions). When 360-degree feedback is used for performance evaluation purposes, it is sometimes called a "360-degree review". 360-degree feedback adds value to organizations and their development because of the unique, facilitative role these systems can play vis-a-vis the following significant trends in organizations: moving from an inside-out to an outside-in orientation, the changing nature of work, and the changing role of management and leadership. Researching 360 appraisal is known to the best first step in determining your requirements and brushing up on your understanding in this area.

Reflect Back To People What You SeeShortly after a 360 performance review finishes, managers should set up a 1:1 meeting with each team member. It’s important for them to discuss the review together, get their impressions, and understand more about how they experienced it. It’s important to take organizational politics into account when drafting the 360 list: internal or external constituencies, such as customers or counter-parties, may also have helpful feedback to provide, and inviting them to participate can send a positive message, indicating that the coachee cares about their views and feedback. Managers should try to get a pulse of how the team feels about the 360 reviews, particularly if this is the first time they have taken part in one. At the same time, managers should help individual team members, pointing them in the right direction. Listening is the key skill to apply to negative comments in a 360 degree feedbacksession as well as confirming what you feel and see. Try asking questions such as, “Do you have any idea where this high expectation of yourself has come from? ” or stating, “This idea of being liked has clearly worked very well for you up to now”. Key is to highlight that, whatever they have been saying and doing, it has been for a very good reason and has been working for them. If it had not been working then, quite simply, they would have done things differently. This way you can allow them to get to be OK with how it has been and at the same time allow them to see that things might be different in the future. 360 Feedback can be a useful development tool for people who are not in a management role. Strictly speaking, a "non-manager" 360 assessment is not measuring feedback from 360 degrees since there are no direct reports, but the same principles still apply. Organisations should avoid fear based responses when coming to terms with 

360 degree feedback system in the workplace.

Although the use and production of 360-degree instruments has grown over the years, research interpreting the gap between self- and others' ratings (self-and-other differences) has not kept pace. The absence of research on self-and-other differences, as they relate to culture, is even more stark. The research that exists explores differences in cultural patterns in the use of response scale ratings and self-rating modesty or leniency. With 360-degree feedback, there is an enormous amount of information to be absorbed. The feedback usually covers multiple performance dimensions, each being rated by multiple sources. For example, one 360-degree feedback survey we know of contains twenty-two performance ratings from self, supervisors, peers, and subordinates. This generates eighty-eight separate data points for the feedback recipient to digest. Translating the promise of multisource assessment processes into sustainable systems is now the challenge. The process must do what it is supposed to do: create fair and accurate performance measures that motivate employees and strengthen development. If it does not, users will dismiss the 360 degree feedbackinitiatives as a passing fad. Some people develop self-insight by observing how people react to them or by asking for feedback. These individuals are open to new ideas about themselves. Other people have a crystallized view of themselves and interpret others' behaviors and reactions as consistent with that self-view. As a result, they fail to learn much from their observations or from feedback. 360 degree feedbackis designed to present data in such a way that they have to see it – but it does not guarantee that they will truly listen and it certainly does not guarantee that the reviewers will feel they have been heard. Self-expression that has not been heard ends up being quite destructive so there is a risk here. Keeping up with the latest developments regarding 360 feedback software is a pre-cursor to Increased employee motivation and building the link between performance and rewards.

Mediate To Ensure Useful Conversations OccurTeams can also get a lot of value out of 360 degree reviews. In this case, the feedback can be collected from internal team members, the team’s manager or lead, and other employees who frequently work with the team. This combined approach should give teams a better sense of how they’re performing and progressing toward their shared objectives. People who are chosen as raters or feedback providers in 360-degree feedback are often selected in a shared process by both the organization and the employee. These are people who generally interact routinely with the person who is receiving feedback. Bad marks for a brand are very hard to extinguish though it can be done with effort and support. If you want to change your brand then, following the thinking from the field of marketing, you need to change something visible and do something dramatic and then carry on in the new mode with all actions and visible signs aligned. You may also need to add in a dose of “humble pie” with a communication to key others about what you are planning to change and why. Organizations can maximize the value of 360 degree feedbackas a process that will create successful individual and organizational development. This can be done by being intentional and systemic when designing and implementing a 360-degree feedback program such that it fits with the intended purpose, is aligned with the business goals and strategies, and is integrated with the other HR systems. If you are one of the recipients in a 360 review, don’t forget to balance the feedback in this 360-degree report with other feedback you’ve received and your self-assessment. If there are gaps, now is the time to think of reasons. With a better understanding of the feedback, you already avoid falling into the emotion trap. Making sense of 

what is 360 degree feedback eventually allows for personal and organisational performance development.

With 360 degree feedback, each person receives valuable feedback about the quality of their product or services, especially in feedback processes that involve the internal or external customer. This feedback should enable the individual to improve the quality, reliability, promptness, and comprehensiveness of these products and services they supply to their customer. More often these days, 360 degree feedbacksurveys are based on value models, although they are naturally based on behavioural translations of these values. There are generic leadership models available for use by a range of different organisations which can provide a well-tested framework and often a large database of useful comparative norm data. 360 Feedback provides feedback to an employee on their performance – not only from their boss or manager, but also from 4-8 co-workers, reporting staff or customers. 360 performance reviews should usually try to measure how an employee performs in relation to the company’s values and objectives. When we only have the perspective of leaders and managers, we only see half the story. Co-workers highlight problems underlying poor teamwork in the company. Maybe environmental factors, such as inadequate communication channels, are hampering collaboration? When you’re deciding which colleagues to include in an employee’s 360 review, make sure to not only include colleagues with whom the employee has a close relationship — their preexisting relationship with the employee being reviewed with might prevent them from providing honest feedback about how this person could improve. On the flip side, if you choose colleagues with whom the employee generally doesn’t get along, their feedback might be influenced by past conflict. Looking into 360 degree feedback can be a time consuming process.

Better Human Resources Decision InformationOpinion polls are well used for 360 feedback in a number of different settings – most obviously when there is a race to be run or a brand leadership battle to be won. And they are notoriously difficult to interpret and near impossible to use to accurately predict as they are not the real thing. A 360 degree feedbackshould start within the first quarter of someone starting their role within the organization.cOnce someone has transitioned into a role, they need support and feedback to maximise their faith within the organisation but further to this is the need to constantly analyse as a business where you can support your staff. Define who will be involved in the 360 review process. This includes which employees will be reviewed and by whom (e.g., who has direct insight into whom), those who will be responsible for sending out surveys (usually senior managers or HR department personnel), and which managers will be responsible for collecting feedback and delivering it to employees. Unearth extra information relating to 360 review processes in this 

Wikipedia page.

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